A Tibetan Mystic Shares The Path Of Transformation

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Tibetan lama Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and he shared an ancient method for transforming uncomfortable sensations and emotions into pure energy and deep wisdom.

If you don’t feel occasional discomfort or pain in our body, I want to know your secret 🙂

For the other 99.99% of us, the information that this mystic from the Himalayas shared was a much-needed dose of ancestral medicine that anyone can apply to their life right now.

(Scroll below to watch the full video interview – or you can read the full transcript of our talk at the bottom of the page.)

In Rinpoche’s tradition of Bon Buddhism, the feelings that we associate with suffering are seen as harbingers of important information, or feedback, from our mind and body.

The first thing he did was challenge me to look closer at this sensation we westerners have labeled as “pain”.

If you think about it, pain is a normal and unavoidable part of the human experience that we find ourselves in. Every single one of us experiences it at semi-regular intervals as we walk through the world, but very few understand how to work with it.

A cultural blind spot seems to have developed in the west, a notion that our emotions and physiologies shouldn’t “act up” or cry out to us when they’re hurting.

But is it possible that these sensations hold a deeper message for us?

In the video below, you will learn:

How to use the light of your awareness to transform uncomfortable sensations and emotions into pure energy and deep wisdom.

The “3 precious drawers” for accessing intuition and holding space for whatever life brings.

The healing power of the “spacious, luminous, warm hug.”

This teaching from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche blew us away. He’s been an inspiration to me since first encountering his teachings about five years ago and I’ve been hoping to have the opportunity to present his wisdom to the Sacred Science community ever since.

I hope you find as much power in his words as I did.

Stay curious,

Nick Polizzi Founder, The Sacred Science

Full Transcription:

Nick Polizzi: Hi, this is Nick Polizzi from the Sacred Science and I’m here today with a man who is known throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe for his powerful teachings on matters of the spirit, and essential wisdom on how to live a more awakened life. He’s a recognized master of the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet and the founder of the Ligmincha Institute which now has over 35 centers around the world. His name is Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and today we are going to be delving into a topic that is at the core of the inner healing path. We’ll be discussing how to turn your pain into the path. Rinpoche, it’s an honor to be here with you today. How are you?

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very happy to be here.

NP: You’re in Berlin right now?

TWR: Yes. I am in Berlin and actually I’ve been here for the last five weeks. Now today’s my last day. I’m flying back tomorrow to San Francisco.

NP: Oh my gosh. You travel quite a bit, right?

TWR: Yes, I do.

NP: Was that accurate, you have over 35 centers around the world?

TWR: Yes. We have different sized centers. We have places where there’s a retreat center, places there’s only a city center, places where there’s more practice groups. Yeah, we’re kind of spread out. Yes.

NP: Oh my gosh. Rinpoche and I had lunch about maybe two months ago in Berkeley and I remembered the first thing I said to Rinpoche was, first of all, how much of an honor it was to meet you in person and secondly that I met you online without you realizing it maybe three or four years ago from one of your many YouTube videos because you have an incredible array of YouTube videos that really dive deeply into all the spiritual work that you do and it dovetails so nicely with what we do with the Sacred Science and shamanism that it just felt like I had to try to reach out and see if we could arrange an interview like this. Really an honor to be here with you today.

So can we just kind of start with this idea of, in the western world we try to resist and hide from suffering. We do whatever it takes to not have to deal with our stuff, to not have to feel that discomfort. Could we just start with something really basic and just talk about how the path really is about turning towards that and understanding it better?

TWR: Sure. I think let’s say in the Bon tradition, in the Buddhist Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition, which is very much based on the spiritual path, practices, ultimately working toward liberation or enlightenment. In order to do that clearly Buddha was awakened because of recognition of his own suffering and his own pain and in our teachings, particularly the teachings of what we call the path to transformation or the teaching of the path of great profession. These two approaches of school, one talks more about transformation of pain or one talks about the liberation of pain so it’s kind of a little bit different.

We sometimes give a metaphor of a poison plant. If you are a doctor then you would transform that same plant, boil it, cook it, dry it, whatever you are doing and mix with something else and then that substance, the poison itself becomes a medicine after you transform it as a doctor. Some of us, we prefer that way, that approach so somehow we work with our body, we work with our energy, work with our awareness and try to figure out to change the same emotions, raw emotions into a pure energy, into a wisdom.

The other approach is a more what we call a peacock approach. The peacock approach is basically not an approach of the doctor. The peacock basically eats it. It’s not trying to change anything. It just eats it as it is and the peacock is able to do that because the peacock eats the poison. What poison does to the peacock is just basically makes it stronger, more healthier, more beautiful. The feathers brighten and so on. Somehow the second approach is that we are also capable of really transforming our pain simply by being present, simply by being awake, simply by not judging it.

I always give the example of my phone which is here. If you look at it like this, this is my awareness. The metaphor is this is like awareness. This awareness is not trying to change anything, this object. It’s just basically illuminates the darkness. It illuminates the object and regardless of how long, 1,000 years of darkness or one hour of darkness, this light does not ask questions, does not distinguish anything. It just illuminates equally. Deep inside our awareness when it also turns back inside yourself, that we call self awareness. Thought all of your areas of darkness, it is able to illuminate your inner wound, inner darkness, inner conflict, confusions.

It’s able to illuminate just being purely conscious of it rather than manipulating anything with your conceptual mind, which is what very often in the West, there’s a lot of talks about a positive thinking, law of attractions and somehow it’s like of course what you think, all day what you’re trying to attract, that will definitely attract. Somehow also it’s some kind of little suggestion there that if you really wanted to be rich, you just have to desire, think a lot about how to become rich. If you really wanted to achieve liberation then you have to think a lot or desire a lot or want a lot and then you will achieve liberation. That’s totally wrong.

In a way, how we enrich our lives, how we awaken ourselves is not by conceptualizing, manipulating our thoughts and emotions. It’s not about that. It’s not about conceptualizing with our thought and manipulating with our thought. It’s more being aware and conscious with what we call non-conceptual awareness, non-dual awareness or pure awareness. It depends on what you cal call rigpa, awakened awareness. Being more aware of that, I think that’s something I think is very less spoken, less understood and even sometimes some great teacher speaks about them and very inspiringly speaks about it but only it’s inspiring to hear it and feel the presence of somebody speaking about it but still they may not have any clue what that is. That is also going on a lot.

I think this is basically two main approaches where that really what it is, whatever the pain it is, without suppressing it, without avoiding it, going directly into it, recognizing it, it can become your path.

NP: This seems like a natural thing that we would as humans want to do, using this pure awareness to see the world and using this pure awareness to look within ourselves and feel ourselves. Why is it something that is not really very natural in us anymore? Was there a point in time when we as humans were pretty much living this way and we’ve kind of moved away from that or is it something that really is not inherent in us humans and that we actually need to try for?

TWR: Yeah. I think probably one of the reasons maybe is that because deep inside, that awareness is so unfamiliar, that what we call unbounded space, the openness is so unfamiliar. We are so familiar with the bounded self. We are so familiar with our conditions. We are so familiar with our comfort zones, our limited point of view and we see through them. We exist through them. We operate through them so the idea of something else, it’s probably a little bit too much. If you wanted to do anything we wanted to do with the same pain, like the same thought, same concept to go break it. To be a peacock is difficult. To be a doctor is easier.

The third one, which I did not say this before, what we call the path of renunciation, which is what most of the people do, run away from it. Like a child, like an ordinary person who is not doctor or who is not a peacock. The only thing you’ll do with the poison, run away. Hide it. Put it somewhere, nobody can touch it, especially the children cannot touch it so that otherwise you die. Basically instead of pain becoming your path, we die. We suffer through our pain. That’s one thing.

Another thing is people who have some sense of a little bit of experiencing awakening – they do have this awakening of when they are able to connect with themselves, at least for stabilizing themselves, calming down themselves by focusing on their body, what I call three precious pills or three drawers. By bringing attention to their body, for example, when you bring your full attention to your body, then you can just feel a sense of stillness. If your body is still and you’re bringing your attention to that you’ll feel that stillness and then slowly you’ll rest there. When you rest deep enough in that stillness, that stability, that connectedness, that groundedness, that makes you stronger. When you feel stronger you are more likely able to face your pain because from that place of stillness, from that place of boundlessness or less boundaries you are much more open. You feel much more confident, able to see something directly.

When you look at something directly like your pain, at that very moment the view of the pain is different. People say, “Wow, it doesn’t look that bad. Wow. I feel okay with that. I can live with that. I don’t feel the pain. I feel free. I feel I can still enjoy myself. I can still feel joy even though I’m feeling sadness. I can still feel some sense of trust even though I am feeling fear. I can still joke even though I am feeling a little depressed.” Somehow able to experience their own inner quality even through those pains. That’s kind of really the magic there. It’s kind of when you get to that place you are able to see both at the same time. In our teachings and practices we call integration. We call it ornament because your pain becomes an ornament to you. Poison becomes the medicine for the peacock. Your pain makes you strong, basically.

I sometimes tell people, “Look at your life. How many times have you suffered? Even you no longer suffer, you’ve suffered. How many pains have made you grow? Made you recognize? Make you discover things? Make you understand things? Make you realize and enrich your life? Make you be more careful? How many times has the pain had enriched your life?” People look back. They say, “Of course, there are many, many times it happens but not that often.” Very often what happens, pain just remains pain. Pain sometime destroys you, weakens you, discourages you. You lose your trust. You lose the ability of creativity so you lose all those things. In those cases pain just becomes complete waste, more like damaging situation. Pain has both qualities and we kind of need to really trust that pain can be your best friend if you want to be.

NP: This word pain is really interesting to me because it feels like it’s one of those blanket terms that is kind of slapped on a lot of different more intricate sensations that we might be feeling as individuals. I wonder, in your tradition and your practice, is there a way of drilling down and getting past that one word? That word, it’s a pretty negative word and it’s sort of covering up a lot of sensations. I had terrible migraines for a while and one day I decided to really experience the pain and I realized it wasn’t really pain. It was just a lot of different sensations trying to course through me at the same time and when I started actually trying to understand them and appreciate them, the pain, I untangled it and got rid of my lifelong migraines. I see pain as something a lot more intricate than this one word.

TWR: I think maybe also when we think about pain, we think not only physical pain. I think it’s important. You can have psychological pain, conceptual pain. You can have more emotional. You can have physical. Pain has much more sense of being open. Let’s think about like a physical pain, for example. Let’s say I have some problem in my chest, for example. Usually our relation to that pain is in my chest or in my heart, or heart chakra – I usually I don’t draw attention there. I ignore my heart area. This is the location where I said, “No, okay. It’s there. I know it’s there,” but I don’t pay attention. I don’t bring my connection there. I don’t bring my sense of peace. I don’t bring my sense of warmth, gratitude, gentleness, sense of being there. My favorite example is just my awareness, just bringing attention there and just illuminating that heart chakra with my awareness.

In that very moment, this awareness has the power to open my heart. Awareness has the power to heal the pain. We don’t do that but what we usually do is not bring attention there. The only time we bring attention there is when we are in pain. We say, “Oh, what is this?” Immediately a very negative kind of look toward your heart, toward that location, toward that chakra, energy center, negative location. If it happens again then fear, then anxiety, then kind of getting angry, upset and then basically at some point even say, “I hate this pain. I hate my heart chakra. I hate.” You don’t literally say that but that’s kind of attitude you have. If you think about this area, I said, “I hate this pain.” To hate pain is very much related to this area, experiencing a sensation there and when you say hate, you are hating yourself. You are hating the location. Nobody likes to be hates.

That in some sense I think makes the pain, makes the sickness, makes the blockages worse. What we usually say is look at that. We say give a spacious, luminous, warm hug. This is the term that I use, hug. Three things I say, spacious, luminous, warm, hug because these three things have a very unique quality deep in the philosophy, in meditation and also it’s like a medicine. Spacious, it has to do with opening or openness. If you’re not open, you can’t give a genuine hug to anybody unless you’re open to that person. You’ve got to have openness. You need to be open toward yourself, that sense of I am open to myself. I am open to my heart. I am particularly open to my heart because I am not well in my heart. The first quality.

The second quality will be luminous. Spacious, that’s space. Luminous is the awareness. Again, this is it. This is the awareness, luminous. Here nobody can avoid the luminosity here. The light is still shining there in my heart. I’m aware of that but people will not see it. That’s the second quality.

Warmth, when you’re open, when you’re connected there is a warmth. The quality of warmth is sometime like a heat, sometime you can take from terms in yoga. They talk about kundalini, awakening. Sometime it’s like a kind of medicine you produce in the body through the movement yoga, breathing. This heat, this warmth, physical heat and energetic heat, psychological, emotional warmth, they are like medicine, pure medicine.

When you bring these three qualities toward your heart, your pain in that very moment begins to shift the energy. You can just, within minutes, you can feel it’s shifting. It’s shifting your relation to it because you are not avoiding it. You are being with it. You are being present. You are being aware. You’re connecting to it. When people do that, we have done some research that people have reduced their pain over 30% within a couple of weeks. They’re able to reduce their physical pain. It’s not just psychological pain but physical pain so it’s really, really powerful.

NP: Some people, they have pain in their body, they have depression, they have deeper pain. How do you as someone who’s starting, it’s easy for us to say, “Pain is the path, here’s how to do it,” but where do you start? If you’re someone who’s just coming, say you’re watching this right now and you’re like, “Okay, this sounds really great but I wouldn’t even know where to begin with this,” how do you start? What’s square one?

TWR: Yeah. Maybe what we can do is we can do maybe a short guided meditation.

People can look this short guided meditation as exactly what you would do if you’re by yourself. You just listen to this or you will just remember to do this and that will be fine.

NP: Yeah. That’d be great.

Guided Meditation

TWR: First, sit comfortably, whatever position you are in, comfortably. You can close the eyes or open eyes, whatever you feel is comfortable. Maybe close the eyes for now. Bring your full attention inward. Maybe take three to five deep, conscious breaths and through this breath, through these breaths, release out whatever you’re holding this very moment, any discomfort in your body, any energetic discomfort, any discomfort in your mind. Whatever discomfort you are feeling, just breathe it out deep. Breathe it out, and at the end of the exhalation, connect to yourself and rest deeper. Repeat three to five times.

Be aware of the stillness in your body. Be aware of the silence around and within you. Feel that stillness. Feel that silence and rest deeper, deeper in that stillness and silence.

Now just for a moment, be aware of the challenges that you are facing this moment in your life or, if it’s a physical pain or particular sickness, be aware of that. Either it’s physical or emotional, be aware of those pains that you are facing. Maybe some of you are avoiding it. Some of you are trying to deal with it but finding it hard.

For now, just look at that pain or challenge. Either it’s physical or emotional. From this place of openness, you are open to it. That pain, in a way, you are identifying with that pain. In a way, that pain is asking you to help. Being open, being aware and being caring like warmth toward that pain, self compassion from that openness, from that awareness. Like you would be gentle, be kind, be present with someone, your best friend. If your best friend is in pain you will be present there. You will be gentle. You will be kind and sending warmth but do the same toward yourself.

I repeat these qualities, specific qualities: being open to it, being aware and connecting with it, and sending a sense of warmth. I call it a spacious, luminous, warm hug to that pain. Either it’s a physical or emotional self compassion. Just hold that. Connect and continue being there, connecting, being in that warmth, and connecting continuously.

Just feel this continued sense of being very open to it, very aware and connected to it. There’s a lot of warmth, the healing of warmth – you’re ascending toward that pain…toward yourself, like you would do towards your best friend. Continue.

Interview (continued)

Okay. Of course we did a very short session here but you can just go on for another half an hour like that. Just begin with resting in your body and resting in that stillness, resting in that silence, resting in that spaciousness. That means resting in your body, your speech, your mind will be the three drawers, and rested enough that you have a different view. You see different. You see more clearly. Then you look through your pain rather than ignoring it. When you look at it you see different. If you rest it enough you see it different. It’s a different view. From that place, that openness is there. When you see more clearly, the presence is there, that awareness is there, that luminosity is there. When these two qualities are there, there is a natural sense of warmth there you’re holding.

It’s like you’re giving this beautiful hug toward your friend who needs it the most in that moment, and just kind of holding, holding that hug. With the presence of that beautiful hug you’re holding toward your friend, in the same way you hold that same beautiful quality hug. So much space, so much light toward your pain either the physical or emotional. When you do that you will see the response from the emotion, the response from the pain, where you will see the differences. It’s like your friend who might cry tears of gratitude, tears of joy, tears of connection, tears of being helped.

In the same way, your own sense of inner self and the pain identity in a wound, maybe you feel tears coming out. Maybe you feel the healings are coming out. Maybe you feel really supported and for different people they might have different experiences but all experiences are around the sense of being acknowledged and connected, rather than being ignored and disconnected.

NP: Yeah. Even as we were doing that I had a little bit of pain in my neck and I was like, “Okay, I guess I have something here I can work with.” I’ve never heard you talk about the spacious, luminescent, warm hug and I was just doing that and there was information. There’s information that comes back at you from that pain and it was pretty amazing. A lot of times it’s more of a deeper – the way you’re living your life kind of information – like, “Oh no, there’s something that you’re missing here about your life that the pain wants you to understand.” It makes me wonder, what is the pain? What is the pain? What is it?

TWR: The pain is basically a manifestation of disconnectedness from yourself. For example, let’s think about a sickness, sickness like something that manifests in your body. That sickness is basically coming out of a long period of charged negative emotions, stress, tensions, it’s kind of producing that, what we call negative poisons. Let’s say heart disease, for example. I’m not saying that every heart disease has to specifically follow that road. There are many heart conditions together but one example will be that heart condition could be caused by (and there are findings that they say) loneliness and anger is a risk factor of heart disease. Loneliness is emotion. Anger is emotion. But the reason why you get angry is because maybe you feel world is after you. You have to protect yourself.

You look at today’s political climate, a lot of anger, and a lot of anger is because people feel they have to protect themselves but anger does not protect. Anger destroys things but nevertheless our human natural tendency is to get angry to protect yourself. Why do you need to protect yourself? You feel unsafe. Why do you feel unsafe? Because you don’t know who you are. You are identifying somebody who you’re not and because you need to protect that, who you are not, and then it becomes a threat when you begin to have some glimpse of experiences of who you are. This is deeply rooted to the sense of disconnectedness, lack of knowing yourself, having pain identity causing negative emotions, causing the sense of anger, loneliness, causing physical conditions of restricting breath and causing the heart problems. It goes kind of from space to energy to the physical level.

In a reverse situation also you do that. You bring the awareness, space where it’s lacking. The heart needs space, right? If the arteries are blocked that’s where the heart attack happens. If emotions are blocked that’s where you don’t feel the warmth, you don’t connect with somebody, you don’t fall in love, you don’t feel love. You need to have space. In the meditation, one of the most important part of the meditation is to create the awareness of the space. That’s why spacious, luminous, warm hug has deep philosophy. A lot of literature, deep philosophy, unbroken transmissions, traditions are all in this and out there.

NP: Spacious, luminous, warm hug. That’s an amazing new bit of wisdom from this talk. Rinpoche, we’re going to do another one of these talks on June 20th. We’re going to be kind of taking the next step on this idea of turning pain into the path. What do you think we’ll cover in that talk? Where’s the next place we’re going to go?

TWR: I think we’ll see the feedback from the audience and see what people are asking. Based on the collective energy of the audience, whatever they seem interested to hear. It’s possible we’ll just continue from this and do another session of meditation. It’s possible we can talk about working with fear, which is one really important element of the pain of our mind. I think that will be good.

NP: Great. Yeah. Everyone who’s watching this right now, just know – please leave your comments. Write in to us. Let us know how you’re feeling. Let us know what you want to know more about and we will make sure that we try to cover what your questions are in the next video.

TWR: Yes. I’ve also been doing Facebook teachings on Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on my Facebook live, also a number of other teachings so you’re welcome to join that and I’m looking forward for that next session with you.

NP: Great. Rinpoche, how do they find you on Facebook? What’s the page?

TWR: It’s Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, that’s the name on the Facebook page and you will see if you click that, there will be information about now June 6th so it’s an interesting number, six, six till eight, eight. June 6th through August 8th every week, every Tuesday we’ll be teaching on dream yoga on Facebook live and this will be translated into 17 languages.

NP: Wow.

TWR: If anybody around the world, if you feel like English is not your native language, there are other options, too.

NP: That’s amazing. Dream yoga?

TWR: Yes, it’s dream yoga.

NP: Oh wow.

TWR: Basically everybody who will be participating in there will be committed to the next two months – following the instructions, practicing every night before you go to sleep. One third of our lifetime we fall asleep, so on average 20 to 25 years you sleep. You live this 25 years of lifetime where you don’t know what’s happening. This is the way to find out what it is and what you can do and how you can even grow and heal in dreams. That’s the idea.

NP: Oh my gosh. I’m signing up for that immediately. My dreams are crazy and I’m trying to figure out how to better work with them so that sounds incredible. Rinpoche, it’s an honor to be here with you. It’s always, always a pleasure talking with you and I cannot wait until we meet again next month to go deeper into how to turn pain into the path. This has been really beneficial for me and I’m sure people watching are really grateful as well.

TWR: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody.

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About Nick Polizzi

Nick Polizzi has spent his career directing and producing feature length documentaries about natural alternatives to conventional medicine. Nick's current role as executive producer of "Remedy: Ancient Medicine for Modern Illness" and founder of The Sacred Science stems from a calling to honor, preserve, and protect the ancient knowledge and healing technologies of the ancient world.

Nick, thank you for this interview. This appeared for me at the perfect time in my life. I believe you would like feedback on what topics would be a good discussion with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche next month. Turning pain into the path is a fabulous topic and I’m interested in the emotional part of death. How to be with the feelings that arise around our mortality and those that we love. Thanks for providing these interviews. It’s a true “service” to “personkind”. Love and light to you, Erin

Thank you both for this interview. Sometimes I’ve found pain is a way of keeping me ‘present’. Sometimes it’s a reminder to consider my body and rest. Sometimes it’s a lack in the diet and sometimes it’s the heartache we carry in life. Solitude has been beneficial in relieving pain also. Nurture is so important… taking care of ourselves first. As a healer I find it strange sometimes that I cannot seem to ‘heal’ myself. Learning to love oneself is key perhaps. Thank you once again for bringing me another way to cope with pain. 🙂

It astonishes me (but should not by now) how synchronicity works. I have no idea what made me open today’s message from you, Nick–I confess I do not always. And not only was the conversation good, and the guided meditation enriching, but a question I had asked myself yesterday was answered. I have no doubt our physical condition is a product of our emotions. I genuinely feel happy each day–a sense of joy in things. I do not feel angry or discontent (though I dream of having a house of my own… 🙂 and feel I am here and it is a gift to be here. But I cannot deny that my physical mobility has changed over the last six years and it has to have emotional basis. The misalignment of knees and legs has to have some deep cause. But these are bones, not tissue–so can entering the stillness change the condition, or is it that I simply become at peace with it?

Hello Nick and dear Rinpoche, Thank you so much for sharing this wisdom.. I loved the mediation and will us it again tomorrow. I’m interested in your conversation about fear as well.. and I’m fascinated about what Erin suggested too, the emotional part of death and for me about spirit living on. thank you again, may you have safe journeys wherever you go.

Hi Nick, Thank you so much for posting this interview!!! And I look forward to the next on the 20th. It held answers to questions I had just this morning from my walking meditation practice e.g. the experience of being bounded and unbounded. With deep gratitude, Cheers from Halifax, Canada

This is a beautiful concept you have shared with us. And a most important link to a precious man Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Thank you Tenzin for making your life one to inspire and share with us to truely connect to our selves and understand this connection – a gift and gratitude. Many blessings to you both. ❤️

As the meditation processed I focused on a slight instance of tennitus that has been existing in the background for a couple years. The warmth factor seemed to provide a clarity to the quiet that I so often miss and the heat seems to still be there after the video hook up. A thought that resonates in the aftermath is that while individually this can appear helpful the united energy signature that could be generated in a group format is worth pondering.

Very enlightening talk . Thank you Nick and Rinpoche for giving us this precious method of alleviating pain , the sensation most of us suffer from most of our lives. Would like to hear how to overcome fear. I always feel fear for my children who travel a lot. There are some other issues also which keep haunting me . Looking forward.

I have been struggling with some characteristics that cause me suffering, emotions, reactions and fear that remain despite my spiritual practices. They stand out now as glaring faults in my nature that have hampered my growth, despite psychological and spiritual counseling and study. This video and especially the meditation has been so exciting. Just after this short period I believe I have found a practice to move me to a next level of growth and more than that to find peace in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope to gain more from the next video. Nick your speakers and teachers are the best and have helped me so much. Thank you for bringing them to us

Thank you so much for this enlightening interview – it just happened to come at a time when I feel rather stuck at a crossroad, feel uncomfortable, have been coping with death a lot recently, feel unsettled and unsure of everything. I don’t think I would even call it pain, just a vague uneasy feeling that I have to change direction or I will fall into depression again. I have been trying to deal with it by being super active and not thinking about it, but I know I’m running away from something and have to deal with whatever it is. Would you be able to address how to identify and transform this “pain” when you don’t know what is causing it?

Thank you for this interview. Like the comment below it came at a perfect time. I had just done a similar meditation an hour earlier with some pain in my right kidney. I know in Chinese medicine kidneys are related to fear. As I stayed with this pain I contacted information from a past life – victim of the holocaust (which I’ve experienced a couple time before). Can you address in your next talk possible residue from other lifetimes that remain in this body? Thank you again

Thank you for sharing this wonderful interview! The “spacious, luminous, warm hug” felt so comforting. In addition to eliminating pain, I would like to know how to find out what messages the pain is sending, and how to change my life to go in the direction it is meant to go.

Perfect time. I had just done this minutes earlier without knowing. Got up from my meditation, looked at my email and a friend had sent a link to this video. One of my cat children passed last night, I was in a great deal of pain. This video explained what I just did. Looking forward to more videos. Thank you so much!

Beautiful and so generous of you both to share. Thank you. The meditation made an immediate difference, for me. I really resonated with the concept (and reality) of being disconnected from my body. I did not see that anything could co-exist with my chronic pain; how I was attempting to escape the pain (physical ~ neuralgia) and thereby abandoning myself. And what a wonderful suggestion to ‘love on’ (hug) my best friend, but translate that to myself. (Bonus, she gets some spacious and illuminated warmth sent to her too, prior to turning the focus inside myself:) I believe love is so everything, but sensing it works better via these three words. Love to you both.

Hi Nick Thank you for sending me the video on healing pain the Buddhist way. Most Eastern Mystics teachings go way over the head of Western religious cultures. Their teachings and mindset are different to ours and in a lot of ways light years ahead in spiritual matters. Very much like the teachings of Hinduism. In fact an off shoot of the more ancient Hindu religion. I know through experience that negative emotions can be devastating to the physical health of a person. Hatred the opposite of Love, is one of the biggest culprits, and is indirectly responsible for most heart attacks. Doctor need to address the mental and emotional side of a person before they can even begin to heal his/her body. An example is: A man or woman or child may go to their doctor with stomach problems { In most cases caused by extreme stress, “The silent killer”} ending in ulcers which can be fatal if they burst, causing internal bleeding in the body. If the doctor just prescribes pills to cure the physical body the Illness will return again.He/She has not addressed root cause of the problem. I have been there. Can you imagine the fear that an Oncologist puts into a person, especially a young person who has been told that they have terminal cancer and may not have long to live?. I can tell you, it is devastating. Tenzin.s words were enlightening. I would like to add the Western words which I am sure is the same as Tenzins words. Love yourself. And forgive your self and your Illness. You are special.

NICK hi thank you, we are human here on earth,,because i had such trauma’s as child growing up did much work, did awareness inner child and meditation silent retreat, creating love realizing your spirit is magnificent love ,I am love , i am loved and lover inner self i am that i am a women who does have passion as a sensitive pure i pick up on energies and aware of pain i think i took on pain so not letting go and tears always cleansing wounds as healer .however for anything i have released today i thank you both it was beautiful i taught for a long time allowing others into my space i allow as i flow . thank you namaste Masters .

How would you suggest one gets to the ROOT OF THE ROOT of the pain – the very origin that caused it? Usually it’s an old belief that can be rooted in a past life – how does one get to that? Because, once one sees into the root, embraces it and transcends it, the pain will not re-occur. Thanks!

Thank you both! This is a current subject of exploration for me. I appreciate the path of discomfort leading to transformation or alchemy. By staying with the pain instead of running from it or distracting myself from it; I uncover the source is usually fear. I would like to see another video regarding the path of transformation and discuss possibly the fear generator itself; the ego that is always trying to protect us from imagined negativity or inner critic activity. Also I appreciate the question about the word pain being associated with negativity instead of growth in the west.

So so good! Thank you Nick and Rinpoche!! The spacious, luminous warm hug was a great help in how to direct our attention and energy! Cannot wait for the pearls of wisdom. Many thanks and blessings to both of you!

Thank you so much for such a wonderful 45 minutes of wisdom. This is a subject that most people want to avoid instead of embrace. I truly enjoyed every moment of this lecture…especially the meditation.

Never, ever again, will I run from pain. I will gladly embrace it with a three part hug. Outstanding. AND I do agree that we must listen to and embrace the pain to reach further realization.

This so wonderful Thank you Nick, and Lama Tenzin Wangugal , I think I got a transmission of how to go deeper into silence to stillness, then rest spaciousness warm light hug and healing. WOW I like the idea for next time to learn more about healing fear and bring in love.

Thank you for a nice encounter at the end of a beautiful sunny morning. In the Hug meditation I enjoyed the sense of boundlessness and I became aware of my tendency to loose spaciousness and feel exposed in the world. The lesson is to understand this pain’s question for help to me. Maybe next time this self compassion can be explored more.

THANK YOU for these wonderful words that resonated with me. I had problems with my outbreath, it was short. An ECG showed all fine but I have to go for Echo gram. I have spoken to my dr’s about how this usually happens when I am having neg thoughts and fears. They actually understood what I was saying, and we agreed I should think positively. I think if they find a heart valve of mine is not functioning properly, I believe it will actually be that my thinking is not functioning properly! I dialyse 3times wk and have ‘had’ multiple myeloma. My darling daughter and 2grand daughters live 6000 miles away and I get to see them every 2yrs. My heart aches for them….thankful for Skype but its not a real hug! However your words brought me back to myself and I cried with joy! My heart feels soft and warm. I can deal with my life again from a place of strength and Love. Namaste PS Looking forward to next talk

THANK YOU for these wonderful words which resonated with me greatly, especially as I had been having problem with short outbreath. ECG showed all fine, but having echo gram next week. I dialyse 3times wk and have ‘had’ multiple myeloma and when I told my dr’s that I have chest problems usually when I have neg thoughts and fears, they agreed with me that thinking positively is better! My darling daughter and 2grandaughters lie 6000miles away, grateful for skype but its a real hug! My heart aches for them as I only get to see them every 2yrs. However your words today brought me back to myself and my heart feels warm and I cried with joy. Thank you again and I look forward to your next talk and meditation. Namaste

Thank you. This interview was very powerful. Words spoken turned into physical sensations of warmth in the body. We so often want this from others but to give to ourselves in this way, this kindness, understanding, warmth and love, very powerful. One part I was stuck on in the interview is when pain can be a waste ,when we begin to loose hope and trust in ourselves. This is something I am being faced with and always regarded it as a challenge in which I must overcome. Wondering if you could speak a little more on this. and maybe the reality of me focusing on this point in the interview is telling me something. Thank you Nick for all that you do. I always look forward to your emails and find its always what I need.

Thank you so much for this guidance. Your explanations have really helped me to understand how to embrace the feelings rather than run away from them. I have been dealing with the grief of my Mum’s death so felt I needed a way of releasing the pain instead of almost holding on to it like a weird comfort blanket! Also it was very interesting the idea of anger causing heart disease. My father has always had a lot of anger and he dealt with his grief in an angry way. I feel like he has conditioned himself over a lifetime to react this way so now this is his normal. It is very difficult to not feel stress or frustration or indeed sometimes anger with someone I feel makes life or situations more challenging than they need to be. How can I keep a sense of peace or build a protective shield around me and feel compassion in difficult circumstances? Thank you so much for the guided meditation and I look forward to checking out the dream work.

Fantastic. Although I often imagine light in areas of pain I have never thought of it in terms of a warm hug before. I will be offering my body more loving hugs in future. I would love to hear thoughts about self sabotage.

I loved that teaching. I’ve always been happy in my self, but would like to find out if that means I know who I truly am. I often feel frustrated and trapped that I’m not living my purpose and not living a passionate path. having a family makes it harder to take risks and let go and fully live. I’d love to help others more but can’t get to a position that I can do that from. Thank you to sacred science team. a very good book to read is sacred quantum metaphysics. life changer.

Thankyou Nick and Rinpoche, so much for this beautiful posting. Perfect timing and now inspires me to join with your Buddhist group Rinpoche. Can you please tell me if you have a centre in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia? Much love many blessings and a big spacious, luminous hug from my heart to yours.

Hello Nick and Rinpoche, All my life I have struggled with insomnia. It is so bad now as I get older. I am 76, born just before WW 2. I just don’t feel safe. Something is keeping me alert. I am sure it goes back to the 4.5 years as a Japanese POW. I am a practicing Buddhist and I am not getting any further on the Path until I get rid of this emotional block. Can you help me, please!

Thanks to the two of you for this amazing video on embracing pain for healing. I really appreciated the meditation and the inspiration to reconnect and bring compassion to the suffering parts of my experience. I look forward to June 20 and will share this with others.

Thank you so much. I am recovering from cancer and recently had gall bladder attacks & removal. Also, the low back was in terrific pain. The medical system did not provide significant relief (emotional, psychological, or physical). Two days ago I was told the cancer may be growing again. A session on dealing with fear sounds just right for me! I loved the self compassion part. It does make such good sense.

Hi Cynthia. Because we are”both” Spiritual and Human Beings, we need to heal the ” Whole ” person. I have found that if you have a life threatening or life shortening Illness [ in my case both, I am 71 years old ] a “raw” multiple fruits and vegetables diet helps. With” Full Strength Garlic and Turmeric pills” [The stronger the better to purify the blood] It will not cure you but it will improve your health. The idea is to get as much prana into your body as possible. Above the ground fruits and vegetables catch more sunlight or vitamin D3 although all veg is good for you. Especially greens. The Sun is a great healer too in moderation. Ty recommends using sugar to a minimum, none at all if seriously Ill. I don’t recommend anything unless I try it myself, and it works. Look up Ty Bollinger : ” The Truth about Cancer ” He has been through the mill himself and has helped me cope with and improve my health. I am pain free now. Coupled with Tenzin’s warm hugs it should help your health a lot. I am sure Nick doesn’t mind me passing on this helpful piece of information. Blessings

Wow. OK, so what about the healing of serious physical conditions? How do Tenzen Wangyal Rinpoche teachings impact these aspects? I am a firm believer that emotional/psychological pains (that we largely ignore in Western beliefs) create our physical pains. I also believe that affirmations and the Law of Attraction cannot ‘heal’, but could definitely affect the beliefs that may help us heal.

I will most assuredly connect with the live posts on FB and look forward to them.

I got up because I was in pain and couldn’t sleep – opened mail to find this waiting for me in perfect timing. I use a similar technique with my yoga students at the beginning of class to bring us into stillness and in tune with our body, mind and spirit without judgement of what we find there, with openness to ourselves and our pain, embracing ourselves with love. Tonight I needed to be the receiver rather than the giver and there you both were discussing exactly what I needed to hear and know on a deeper level – to give myself a spacious, luminous, warm hug. With deep gratitude I am learning to listen to the whispers of my own heart and know this leads me forward to assist others as a light healer in this world.

Fantastic. I really needed that, as I had been trying to negate some emotional pain & it wasn’t working! Thank you Nick and Rinpoche very much! I don’t support FBook, otherwise I would join you there. However, I need to remind myself of the “Spacious, Luminous, Warm hug” for the heartaches & other pains in life. Brilliant! I look forward to next week.

I am sending a heartfelt thank you to you both for sharing this wisdom. . It is only in the last few years that I have begun to see pain as a way in to healing and learning. And yet, even as I help others to go within , I often push my own pain away… as in take a pill, see a chiropractor, do some stretching etc. The mediation today was very powerful and healing for me on both a physical and emotional level. Looking forward to the next video and am hoping for another meditation. Your dream work on Facebook sounds great as well! Wishing you a joyous week!

Your Interview with Rinpoche truly enlihgtening. Is it possible for you to speak more on the healing aspects of facing pain. I have looked to Qigong for wisdom in dealing with my illness which is chronic but I would love to hear more on how meditation can cause physiological changes and allow the body to heal itself. THANK YOU so much

Thank you Nick and Rinpoche. My eldest daughter was going through cancer treatments for last year. I lived with her during certain crucial times and help in anyway that I could. In this past late spring I developed stomach problems that led to increased diarrhea. I had finished a cleanse at that time and was relating it to toxins leaving my body. However this is gone on for a while and now I’m getting some tests done to see if I have some bacteria or something else going on. After listening to the talk today I feel that some of my emotional state was transferred into this physical condition. Wanted to share.

This was so transformational! Thank you both. I feel that I am the peacock and the child! I have taken so much poison for my whole life but, I run from the poison which is really a huge part of myself. I am so looking forward to the next session. I will also see on Facebook what this dream yoga is!?… Thank you for graciously sharing your wisdom and love. Very much needed and appreciated.

This was beautiful – thank you! I am wondering if Rinpoche could elaborate on how to reconnect with the true Self so that an individual can feel safe and let go of neurotic behaviors. I experience an intense need to compulsively wash my hands when intellectually I know that it is not necessary. I know that the behavior is rooted in fear and anxiety, but I do not know the origins of that fear and anxiety. I have tried many traditional and nontraditional treatments/therapies to no avail. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this presentation….. as other’s have stated, “It came at the perfect time for me”. I also would be interested in “dealing with death and our own mortality as physical humans”. I believe aging, losing the ability to do what you love in this life, and the understanding that you will no longer exist as some point (in the physical), tends to make me feel quite deeply sad… and I don’t know why as the thought of dying doesn’t bother me (I’ve lived a very full life) but the thought of being forgotten after one or two generations into obscurity, does bother me….. :-/

I have found this really helpdul. I have been dealing with pain in my neck and shoulder for some time now. I had come to the conclusion that it is because I am avoiding something. Then you talked about dreams. It may be that I am avoiding my dreams. I tend to not remember them. I have had dreams in the past that played out in waking and did not know how to deal with that. I plan to go to Facebook page and work with that. Thank you!

Had to share this with many friends and look forward to next interview! Very helpful (did he see my tears flowing??) and cleansing. My headache is gone, too. About 5 years ago I began learning Tai Chi and Qigong. I went from walking with a cane and at times needing a wheel chair, to complete independence in walking after about one year of practice. It has similarly changed my life. The mind leads Qi and Qi leads the mind… Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wow…. I was not expecting to receive such ‘luminous and warm’ teachings. It seemed that Tenzin Rimpoche was tuned into and addressed many of my questions and wonderings about: both my experiences of discomfort (and what to do about them), and some long standing puzzlements on concepts/ideas/practices, such as ‘the law of attraction’. I was very much helped and nourished by this talk and soooo appreciate your sharing this wonderful teacher with us. I look forward to more journeys with you and with Tenzin. I am staying curious 🙂 Thanks again.

Nick, I had flagged this email because I wanted to watch this interview and finally found the quiet time to view it. I must tell you that it exceeded all of my expectations. A real blessing to me. Some of the things he described I had experienced through pure instinct. But to be able to put more form and thought into this practice is just grand. A gift! Thank you for making it available to us! With blessings to you and yours, Marsha

Hello Nick thank you so much for this video – surrendipitous – i have just found it – what a beautiful and wise man you have found in Rinpoche I have had chronic pain for years and have had struggled for over 30 years with a genetic disease which has created chaos in my life – this most recent relapse has left me wanting to give up as I have been unable to work for over 2.5 years – I have done so much and have created some minor inroads but the symptoms and pain have left me rendered However simple meditation was incredible in the sense that I felt self love for the first time in my life – of course conceptually I have known self love but this is the first time I have truly experienced it!! This spacious luminace warm hug is the best medicine I have ever been given – wow – I am so grateful Bless you Nick for all you do xxxxx